Waingels College


Waingels College is a co-educational comprehensive secondary school located in Woodley, Reading, Berkshire, England. It has a population of 1,500 students but may rise due to overcrowding in the area and an appeals process which now has to take place. Over 400 people apply for entry annually, though there are only 270 places available. The school previously held specialist status as a Mathematics and Computing College, and converted to academy status in July 2015.

Houses

In September 2006 the school was split into six houses. Each house is named after an inspirational role-model. Each house has a learning community, Red, Green and Gold which are seen on the uniform with a Red, Green or Yellow collar around it and on the logo. Brunel and Da Vinci are in the Green Zone, Holmes and Rowling are the Gold Zone and Turing and Astor are the Red zone.
Name of houseColourRole Model
Astor WhiteNancy Astor, the first woman to sit as an MP in the UK.
Brunel GreenIsambard Kingdom Brunel, the engineer and creator of the Great Western Railway.
Da Vinci BlueLeonardo da Vinci, the Italian scientist, inventor and artist.
Holmes RedKelly Holmes, the Olympic gold medalist at middle distance.
Rowling YellowJ. K. Rowling, the British author who created the Harry Potter series.
Turing BlackAlan Turing, the British mathematician and cryptographer.

Until 2006 the school was split into two 'houses', Wain and Gels. In the 1970s and 1980s the school had four houses named for local connections: Bader, after the airman Douglas Bader who flew from the old Woodley airfield; Brunel, the only survivor in the current line-up; Jerome, after the author Jerome K. Jerome who wrote about the nearby River Thames; and Miles, after the Miles Aircraft company, once based at Woodley airfield.
The school was originally built back in 1970 to replace the old secondary modern school on Loddon Bridge Road, Rivermead Primary School, which is now a primary school. The school has been rebuilt and was completed in November 2011 at a cost of £31M.

Redevelopment

Waingels College underwent a £31.1 million redevelopment as part of the Schools for the Future building programme, which is now complete. There are now four buildings in total: the "Community Zone" ; the "Green Zone" ; the "Yellow Zone" and the "Red Zone".
The building work has been generally well received, although teachers and students alike were having problems with the open plan design in some parts of the school. There have since been extra walls built, with improvements to the original design being continually made.
The new college was officially opened on 26 March 2012 by HRH Prince Andrew, Duke of York.

Notable former pupils